Passes the Bechdel test
Roughshod
1949. Directed by Mark Robson, written by Daniel Mainwaring and Hugo Butler and Peter Viertel.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 6 scenes out of 147. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
Wrangler Clay Phillips and his younger brother Steve are taking horses to their ranch near Sonora when they come across four dance hall girls heading the same way with a wrecked buggy. One of the girls is taken away by a boyfriend who came after her. Clay takes the girls on to the nearest ranch, where it turns out one of the girls is the homesteaders' wayward daughter. As Clay already has an escaped killer and his two fellow convicts after him he is reluctant to have to take the remaining two girls on with him but they are set on getting to Sonora.
- Released
- 11 May 1949
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Drama
- Rated
- Approved
- IMDb
- 6.6 / 10
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Clay 240 lines, man
- Mary 196 lines, woman
- Steve 135 lines, man
- Helen 77 lines, woman
- Lednov 44 lines, man
- Fowler 27 lines, man
- Elaine 24 lines, woman
- Wyatt 24 lines
- Graham 18 lines, man
- Mrs. Wyatt 18 lines, woman
Full cast, 16 people
- Robert Sterling as Clay Phillips
- Gloria Grahame as Mary Wells
- Claude Jarman Jr. as Steve Phillips
- John Ireland as Lednov
- Jeff Donnell as Elaine Wyatt
- Myrna Dell as Helen Carter
- Martha Hyer as Marcia
- George Cooper as Jim Clayton
- Jeff Corey as Jed Graham
- Sara Haden as Ma Wyatt
- James Bell as Pa (Ed) Wyatt
- Sean McClory as Fowler
- Robert B. Williams as McCall
- Steve Savage as Peters
- Ed Cassidy as Sheriff Gardner
- Chuck Roberson as Deputy (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 147
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 to 12 | 13 | 16 |
| 13 to 16 | 0 | 9 |
| 17 to 20 | 0 | 59 |
| 21 to 24 | 41 | 49 |
| 25 to 28 | 21 | 28 |
| 29 to 32 | 19 | 18 |
| 33 to 36 | 2 | 0 |
| 37 to 40 | 12 | 57 |
| 41 to 44 | 1 | 7 |
| 45 to 48 | 4 | 20 |
| 49 to 52 | 0 | 0 |
| 53 to 56 | 8 | 8 |
| 57 to 60 | 8 | 10 |
| 61 to 64 | 9 | 2 |
| 65 to 68 | 3 | 3 |
| 69 to 72 | 62 | 9 |
| 73 to 76 | 4 | 4 |
| 77 to 80 | 14 | 23 |
| 81 to 84 | 13 | 17 |
| 85 to 88 | 13 | 21 |
| 89 to 92 | 41 | 30 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 2 |
| 97 to 100 | 1 | 16 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 5 |
| 105 to 108 | 9 | 13 |
| 109 to 112 | 16 | 49 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 5 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 5 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 0 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 1 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 0 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 4 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 3 |
| 141 to 144 | 6 | 14 |
| 145 to 147 | 3 | 4 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
HELEN: I'm slidin' all the way over. MARCIA: So am I. Come on Elaine. ELAINE: What's the difference if we fall in the canyon. MARCIA: Don't talk like that.
HELEN: You think that's all we busted -- You should see... MARY: Now where's she goin'? -- ELAINE: I -- lost something.
MARY: Who's the old folks? ELAINE: Give it to me!
HELEN: Elaine -- stop it -- MARY: She should be in bed where it's dry.
HELEN: Sit down and eat, why don't you? HELEN: It isn't like this was the first place we were ever thrown out of. MARY: That's not what's worryin' me. Why didn't she tell us? Maybe we could have done somethin' -- gone somewhere else -- puttin' a poor sick kid … HELEN: Quit worryin' about Elaine.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 39 are women's.
323 lines from women, 511 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
5 women and 10 men in the cast. 4 women and 10 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 4 of 872.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 85 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 41% of the words (3,469), men 59% (5,094). Women have 39% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
20
Two men
46
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 10 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 4% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Mark Robson (man)
- Written by
- Hugo Butler (man), Daniel Mainwaring (man)
- Story by
- Peter Viertel (man)
- Produced by
- Richard H. Berger (man)
- Shot by
- Joseph F. Biroc (man)
- Edited by
- Marston Fay (gender not listed)
- Music by
- Roy Webb (man), Paul Sawtell (man)
- Costumes by
- Renié (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 4 men
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 3 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 30 on average. Men: 29 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Martha Hyer 24, Gloria Grahame 25, Myrna Dell 25, Jeff Donnell 27, Sara Haden 50
Men
Claude Jarman Jr. 14, George Cooper 29, Robert Sterling 31, Jeff Corey 34, John Ireland 35
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 147 scenes and 872 lines of dialogue. How the test works
